Telegram CEO Remains in Custody as French President Macron Denies 'Political' Move

French president Emmanuel Macron pushed back forcefully on Monday against growing outrage in the tech community over the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, insisting that the surprise move was “in no way a political decision.” 

“I have seen false information regarding France following the arrest of Pavel Durov,” Macron posted to Twitter. “France is deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation, and to the spirit of entrepreneurship. It will remain so.”

On Saturday, Durov was arrested by French authorities while stepping off his private jet outside of Paris, for allegedly facilitating terrorism, drug sales, and fraud by refusing to moderate communications between Telegram users. 

In the hours following the arrest, tech leaders decried it as an unjust and politically motivated attempt by the French government to quell Durov, a prominent free speech advocate who was born in Russia and now resides in Azerbaijan.

Accusations against France quickly escalated to extremes. 

“France has fallen to fascism (again),” Balaji Srinivasan, the prominent crypto investor and former Coinbase CTO, wrote in a Twitter thread that was reposted and endorsed by Elon Musk. 

“Emmanuel Macron wants founders to build in France,” he continued. “Why would you even visit France? Build an app, go to jail.”

Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor turned whistleblower, also laid responsibility for Durov’s arrest directly at the French president’s feet. 

“I am surprised and deeply saddened that Macron has descended to the level of taking hostages as a means for gaining access to private communications,” Snowden wrote Sunday in a Twitter post that received over 85,000 likes. 

The aggressive backlash against Macron’s potential involvement in the case against Durov appears to have struck a chord with the politician, who has spent years carefully fostering an image as a pro-business, pro-tech leader intent on promoting France globally as a “startup nation.”

Macron insisted on Monday that Durov’s arrest stemmed from an independent, ongoing judicial investigation that he had nothing to do with. Shortly thereafter, the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office released a statement in which it revealed that Durov has been under investigation since July 8.

The office also laid out the 12 potential charges levied against Durov. Those include several charges of complicity in illegal acts including the distribution of child pornography, the sale of narcotics, and organized fraud. 

Three of the charges also specifically fault Durov for giving Telegram users access to cryptology tools and services within the privacy-focused app without receiving proper government authorization. 

The prosecutors also said that given the nature of the potential charges, they are entitled to keep him in custody until Wednesday at the latest.

The Open Network is a blockchain network that Telegram originally started, but was furthered by community developers after the messaging platform abandoned it in 2020 amid regulatory scrutiny.

Telegram has increasingly integrated the chain over the past year, however, including using its Toncoin (TON) to pay channel operators a share of ad revenue. A crypto gaming boom has also emerged on Telegram with games like Hamster Kombat and Notcoin, which are building on TON.

The price of TON plunged over the weekend following news of the arrest, and has since fallen out of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. It's now down by 19% over the past week.

Edited by Andrew Hayward